New phase of Dubai’s Happiness Agenda launched

Dubai / WAM

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, launched a new phase of Dubai’s Happiness Agenda.
Under the new phase, a Happiness Champion working in customer-oriented services will now be referred to as a ‘Smart City Experience Specialist’ while a Champion working in Human Resources-oriented roles will be called a ‘Work Environment Specialist’. The launch boosts the Happiness Agenda launched in 2016 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to promote happiness in the city.
“The Happiness Champions contribute to a smart city’s soft power,” said Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed. “We have directed government entities to embrace both of the two new titles for Happiness Champions in their teams, and to align and unite all of their efforts and channel them towards a common goal: to design and build a smart city of the highest standards, upgrade city services, and enhance the living experience of Dubai’s residents and visitors.”

Smart Dubai’s Director General Dr. Aisha bint Butti bin Bishr said, “We, at Smart Dubai, are fully aware of the responsibility we have been entrusted with, which is to oversee the emirate’s smart transformation. Leveraging the power of technology to raise the happiness levels of people in Dubai is the ultimate strategic objective of everything we do – a result that is being achieved due to the collaboration of all our government, semi-government and private sector partners working together, in line with the vision of our wise leadership.”
“We take great pride in the scope and strength of the relationships that tie government, semi-government, and private entities together in Dubai, and this is further enhanced by the Happiness Agenda initiative and the network of Happiness Champions,” Dr. Aisha added. “This also reflects the tremendous efforts undertaken by the Dubai Government, where, in addition to the smart technological integration among entities to provide seamless and efficient services, we find a connection and cohesion among people in these entities – embodied by the Happiness Champions – that reflects the harmony among these entities in pursuit of their goal to make Dubai the happiest and smartest city in the world.”
“The Happiness Agenda has long served as a roadmap for our efforts, and today, we celebrate yet another milestone in our journey, as we usher in a new identity for this ambitious project with a new vision and direction for the Agenda,” she said. “The Happiness Champions have been exceeding all expectations as they fulfil their roles across government entities. The new titles they will be carrying from now on will help them further specialise and focus their efforts, ultimately embedding the concept of ‘Smart Happiness’ in their organisations.”
Hamad Al Awadhi, Project Manager of the Happiness Agenda at Smart Dubai, gave a detailed presentation introducing Sheikh Hamdan to the many accomplishments of the Happiness Champions who have set an outstanding example in terms of teamwork. The team is made up of 78 Champions from the Customer Service and Human Resource departments at 43 different government, semi-government and private sector entities; their work has reflected positively on the efficiency of the government and the city as a whole.
Roudha Al Falahi, Senior Manager – Smart Services, and Happiness Champion at Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, showcased how the authority used results of Smart Dubai’s Happiness Meter to identify pain points for customers interacting with the entity. Using the skills learnt through the Happiness Agenda workshops, the DEWA team redesigned the customer journey experience to improve their levels of customer happiness.
His Highness was also shown the key outcomes and results of the Designing Cities Program which Smart Dubai organises as a learning expedition for Dubai’s Happiness Champions annually. The Program revolves around three key pillars – Smart, Citizen and Design. Over the past three years the Happiness Champions have travelled to Florida, Copenhagen and Tokyo as part of the Designing Cities Program.
The Designing Cities Training Program in Copenhagen resulted in 23 Individual and Group Projects. Humaid Al Ajmani, Vice President for Quality and Excellence and Happiness Champion at Etisalat, showcased an individual project representing a new level of collaboration and trust between a government and a semi-private entity. Through the initiative, Dubai Courts empowered Etisalat to digitally validate Power of Attorneys which has helped reduce Mobile SIM-Card swap frauds.
On the Group Project level, Major Salem Mohammad bin Ali, Director of the Amer Client Happiness Centre and Happiness Champion at the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, presented how collectively working with various different entities in Dubai, resulted in enhancing the overall experience of arriving passengers into Dubai Airports.
Manal bin Yaroof, Director of the Customer Relations Department and a Happiness Champion at Dubai Municipality discussed key lessons learnt from the recent Designing Cities Training Program held in Tokyo this year, where the focus was on how utilising data points and taking cultural norms into account can impact the design and delivery of city services.
As part of the launch, the Smart Dubai team also briefed Sheikh Hamdan about the local and global impact of the Happiness Agenda over the past three years due to which numerous cooperation requests were received by Smart Dubai from other cities within the UAE and abroad. This led to agreements being signed to implement the Happiness Agenda within the governments of Ajman and Fujairah, in addition to an official invitation addressed to Smart Dubai from the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan to visit the Asian country and present Dubai’s experience and the Happiness Agenda. The Happiness Agenda team has also worked with an international firm to build a unified framework that will help city governments enhance daily city experiences for all residents and visit.